The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1887-12-10
FORMS OF SWEARING.
VARIOUS FACTS ABOUT OATHS, AN.
GENT AND MODERN.
forms Used Among the Hebrews-Ths
Ostyaks In siberia--How the Greeks
and Romans swore--Profanity of Amsri-
caDs-French Kings


The oath was originally an appeal to
divine authority to ratify an assertion.
The old Greek gods swore by the Styx,
and Jehovah is represented in the early
books Of the Bible as swearing by himself,
there being none higher. The forms Of
oath among the Hebrews were: by the
God of Abraham, " God do So unto me, -
and more also, "God knOweth,n with
other appeals of similar character
Oaths were originally taken for the
performance of certain acts, 10 pledge
allegiance TO sovereign, 10 pledge "a
sovereign TO the performance Of his duty
to his people. or 10 accomplish judicial
purposes The witness lifted his hands
10 heaven on laid one hand on the head OF
the accused Persons making promises
10 one another laid their hands Oh one
anOther's thighs. Oatbs We're taken be
fore the altar, as the place most sacred.
Ia Assam, ia farther India, two persons
desiring to affirm with great solemnity
take fowl or dog, one by the head, the
other by the tail The Ostyaks in Siberia
when brought into court swear by the
head Of a bear, making motion with the
jaws, aud expressing the hope that thel
may be devoured it they speak falsely.
oATHs or ANCIENT TINES
In ancient times it was cOnsiderei e.
sentlal 10 the validity OF an oath that the
witness should hold something in his
hand, or place his hand on some object
OF great sanctity With the Jews il was
the book of the law, which led 10 the use
o. the Bible i'm Christian courts The
BedOuin Arabs have from ancient times
used various forms OF adjuratiOn. one
Of these was by the Temple. one still
ia use is as follows The person taking
'he oath takes hold OF the middlo pole of
the tent and swears by the life of the
tent and its owners. AlOhammei swOre
hy the Setting of the stars, " tho most
pOetical oath ON record though hardly 50
magnificent as the Oft quoted adjuratiOn
OF William the C0nquerOr, by the splen
dor Of God. Roman Oaths were made
with great solemnty and elaboration. la
Roman mythology Juno, making prOni-
ise 10 sleep, Is represented as takin
heaven in one hand and the earth IN thu
other Greeks and Romans swOre b.
their gods, by the Styx, by Olympus, by
he'll, by their sacred springs or rivers, J.;
the sun and moon. Their oaths wero
valuable ia the early days of the republic,
but worthless after they became corrupt.
Oaths lost their sanctity and became col
loquial or proiane among the Jews at an
early date. Greek ladies swore daintily
10y Venus, Diana and Juno, and now and
then by some Of tho male gods whose
names were taken in vain by their liege
lords The Romans swore by Jupiter,
hercules and their other numerous deities.
Their women initiated those Of Greece
There has always been the danger Of
making the oath too common, and thus
destroying its sanctity Though this has
made perjury easy, il scarcely explains
how judicial or other forms Of swearing
gradually lost their dignity and became
part Of the everyday speech VI men and
women. In the early days VI Christianity
Oaths were regarded with a supersttiOus
reverence that made them binding. They
lost their force ia the Middle Ages 50
that il was thought necessary
10 supply their place with the trial by
combat contact with redhot iron, and
similar barbarOus Judicial eXpedients 10
During the Dark Ages profane swearing
figured among the lost arts. Ina due time
il had its renaissance and arrived at its
present perfection, with vocabulary II
not literature Of its own The English
have been greatly given 10 profanity since
an early pei Iod ia their history Henry
the Eighth sWOre often and Nulgarly, and
his daughter sWore like "a trooper. The
prOfane American usually calls on God
To anathematize some person or some
object which has offended or simply ana
thematizes his eyes or some other part Of
his person The profanity that is some
what refined in social centers becomes
coarse and occasionally picturesque on
the frontier The Oaths OF the rural New
Highlander, VI Of his rural descendants ina
other states, by gosh" and by Colly.'
are without doubt cOrruptions Of the more
emphatic medieval appeals 10 the supreme
Being
OATHs Or FRENCH MONAECHs.
Louis tx VI France, 50 superstitiously
deyout in his old age, swOre by Gods
Resurrection Charles VIII sWOre by the
Light Of God which was more poetic and
suited ~ his character as a chiyalrous
knight. Louis XII, who merlted the title
Father OF his People, treated the deity
with less familiarity. He simply said,
when he desired 10 emphasize the asser-
ton, MAY the devil carry me offw
Francis l. who had been knighted by the
Cheyalier Bsyard, asseyerated "On the
word OF a gentleman As for Bayard
himself, the most finished and irTeproach-
able knight Of his age, his favorite adjura-
ton was by the Head Of God Charles
TX satisfied his morbid desire for some
form OF profanity with terse Gods
Death Henry ~ had two Oaths with
which he freely punctuated his conyersa-
ton: by the belly OF 81. Girls" and
''Jarnidieu St Girls was the god Of
and he swore by him as an old
woman might have sworn by Bacchus
'Jarnidieu' meant Je renie Dieu, that is,
II deny God, " or let me deny God il this
Is so or is not so, meaning 10 appeal 10
something impossible This form OF pro
family did not please his confessor, Cotton,
y no begged him 10 deny any one rather
than God-himself, for instance So the
king changed his form OF adjuration to
'JarnicOton, II deny Cotton.
The French swear Par Notro Dame